Computer ScienceComputingElementaryPrimary
How to teach internet safety
Internet safety for kids comes down to a few rules: keep personal details private, remember that a friendly player can be lying, and tell a trusted adult when someone online asks for something. This page explains each rule, with a free activity where students choose what to do with messages from a made-up game friend.
Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint
"We used Flint in a Debate Activity by loading 4 articles on pros and cons of conducting research using AI vs Google. Because we asked that Flint require the students to support any claim, this was a robust assignment that took all of 30 minutes."
Christopher Bell, Research and Computer Science Teacher at International School BangkokWhy this matters
A student can recite "don't talk to strangers" and still type their school's name for a player who has been nice to them all week, because that player doesn't feel like a stranger. On a worksheet the same student circles the right answers and never has to say why. The teacher has to wait for a real message to reach a real game to find out who would answer it.
Internet safety for kids: what students need to know
These rules come from Nemours KidsHealth's internet safety tips for kids:
- Keep these off the internet unless a parent says it's OK: full name, address or city, school's name, phone number, and photos of yourself or your family.
- Share passwords only with your parents. Someone who signs in as you can say anything, and everyone will think it was you.
- Someone you met online can seem really nice, or say they're a kid, and still be lying.
- When a stranger asks for personal information or asks you to keep a secret from your parents, tell your parents right away.
Common Sense Education's grade 4 digital citizenship lesson asks the same question: "What information about you is OK to share online?"
In the Flint activity, students choose what to do with four messages from SkyBuilder22, a made-up player in a game chat Sparky shows on screen, and tell Sparky why. A worksheet would mark a wrong pick, while Sparky quotes the words in the message that ask for something and asks what those words would let the player do.
Sparky gets Sam to spot what a nice player is asking for
Sam works out what a stranger could do with his password and writes his own rule that holds even when a player is nice. Every student gets the same game chat and messages, and Sparky's replies depend on each student's own answers.
Sam
Sparky
Sam
i picked reply. skybuilder is really nice to me and i want the free gemsSparky
Sam
they could log in as me and take my stuff. ok i change it to tell a trusted adultSparky
Sam
block and tell my mom. a pic shows what i look like.Understanding check
Sam
if someone in a game asks for my password, a pic, my school or to keep a secret, i dont answer. i block them and tell my mom or dad, even if they are nice to meChanged Reply to Tell a trusted adult, then wrote his own rule
Sam is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened.
What Flint did for Sam
- Sparky showed a game chat Sam could click, then a sneakier message once he made a safe pick.
- When Sam picked Reply, Sparky quoted "just tell me your password" and asked what the player could do with it.
- Sparky asked for a rule in Sam's own words, and Sam's rule adds "even if they are nice to me".
A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.
The activity page shows who would still reply
While the class works, Needs attention shows the teacher which student is stuck and on which message. After three or more students submit, activity analytics lists what the class explained well, where students went wrong, and a follow-up to practice next.
Example activity page
After a class works through the game chat
The school and students are made up for this page, and clicking a student opens their chat.
Set up the activity for free
The game chat activity is in Flint's public library, with SkyBuilder22's four messages, Sparky's guidelines and the greeting already written. Open it, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. The player and the game are made up, and the greeting tells students never to type their real details.
For more computer science activities, see Flint for computer science.
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